I was about to post a scathing critique of PayPal’s API services (and documentation), but at the last minute discovered I was being a major dumbass, and deleted the post about 2 minutes after publishing… phew. I’d missed a couple of obvious points — which I shouldn’t have. I plead end-of-day tiredness as an excuse.

However, a day later, I’ve swung back to thinking critical thoughts once again. Like the fact that the documentation was either written by a numpty or, was otherwise written in plain english, then obfuscated into incomprehensibility, for some bizarre reason beyond my ability to grasp.

I mean, apart from yesterday’s abrupt onset of presenile dementia, I’m usually not this stupid (okay, that’s a lie — but my stupid moments are usually restricted to one per day, and I think I’ve already used my daily allowance). Pot calling kettle black, since I’m not exactly the poster boy for brilliant project documentation, but this stuff is hardly what one might call “comprehensive”. I keep thinking, “there must be an end-to-end tutorial (including examples) somewhere”… and I keep not finding it…

UPDATE #1:
It’s good to know I’m -not- the only one beating my head against the PayPal wall…

UPDATE #2:
And also evidence here.

I read, a while back, rumours that Google might be entering the online payment market. The reaction from PayPal at the time (I recall) was cautious — their spokesman saying something along the lines that they would monitor the situation and had already asked employees to unearth more info.

Since then, it looks like Google’s plans have progressed, according to this article (and this one as well), so I wonder how long till Google will release a(n interminable) beta API for using their payment system…? (And allow users to sell more than just physical items, which apparently isn’t allowed at the moment).

Setting aside for the moment, assumptions that Google’s online payments processing is/will be faster, my theory is that, at the very least, the API component of PayPal’s market is ripe for the picking. If not by Google, then by any payment merchant who comes up with a better API for 3rd party access. By better, I mean a simple, REST-based API (or at least dual access, like Amazon), instead of the SOAP gunge PayPal is currently foistering for developer access.

The sooner the better.